Malawi: Five million face death in famine
"Famine is once again stalking Africa's poorest nations as new figures released on Friday show that the food crisis in Malawi is much worse than anticipated.
"Aid agencies now say that at least five million people face starvation this winter.
"The new figures are an increase of nearly a million on what agencies had previously expected in Malawi, a country in the grip of a severe drought and hamstrung by HIV/Aids. The food crisis here is replicated in five other southern African countries -- more than 12 million people face chronic shortages between now and the spring harvest.
"In Malawi, the ministry of health released data indicating that hunger across the country was rocketing.
"Numerous food distribution centres in the country's south, the worst affected area, have also recorded large increases in the number of people asking for food who were not previously registered for assistance.
"Thousands of hungry Malawians have been trying to get rations on the monthly distribution days. Many report they are only eating one meal a day or less.
"The World Food Programme has been warning of the imminent food crisis threatening southern Africa for the past six months. But even they have been taken by surprise by the emerging scale of the problem ..."
Observer
Ten ways you can help Africa :: Help Africa :: Hunger charities
Famine kills children in Malawi
Famine Hits Malawi
MALAWI: ADMARC forced to ration maize as food crisis deepens
Southern Africa facing starvation
HIV/AIDS Epidemic Threatening Food Supply in Famine-Prone Southern Africa
Track new stories about famine – create an email alert or get famine news by RSS
Tagged: famine, poverty, hunger, aid, africa
1 Comments:
ive spent the last 2 months traveling in malawi and, whilst in some places there is a food shortage i and no body ive met has come accross dying people. aid here is a complete failure and is not the answer. heres how it works according to leading figure working within the eu aid programme.... we give money for food aid, the charitys bring in food of which a small amount is distributed free to some villages that have been identified as likely to have severe famine. the rest is given to the government who distribute through grain stores around the country, the price per sack is fixed by the government. poor people here have very little cash and no transport so they cant afford to buy, richer people stock up on large amounts to re-sell in small ammounts when the problem is acute at vastly inflated prices so, what happens is the rich get richer and the very poor starve and die.
the ex president has over $11 million of aid money in his acccount, the governmet has recently admitted that it has been opperating single signature accounts for both aid and other budgets, these accounts are empty.
malawi has one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world and no local people, aid agency or ngo seems to have the intelligence to irrigate tha land using lake water. some aid workers claim the mineral content is too high for irrigation however some "muzungu" lodge owners are able to grow tasty veg using the same water
malawi grows some of the best cannabis in the world, its seeds are second to soya for nutrition, the soil here lacks nitrogen and cannabis growing adds nitrogen and enriches soil, it is illegal
people will die here not because of a food shrtage in the country but through lack of money to buy food
Post a Comment
<< Home